AFSCME Across America: Organizing for Power

From state to state, workers are organizing with AFSCME for a stronger voice on the job. Here are some recent victories:

By Jon Melegrito and Clyde Weiss

From state to state, workers are organizing with AFSCME for a stronger voice on the job. Here are some recent victories:

Connecticut

Twenty-two sanitation and other employees of the Ledge Light Health District have joined Council 4; also voting for representation by the council: 18 Burlington town hall and library employees; and 12 full-time paraprofessionals and campus supervisors employed by the Woodstock Academy, a private high school in the town of Woodstock.

Maine

Eight communications officers and supervisory employees of the Oxford County Regional Communications Center have joined Council 93. The center is responsible for receiving and dispatching calls for most of the county’s law, fire and rescue agencies, including those to 911.

Minnesota

Forty corrections officers and 10 dispatchers from Pine County have joined Council 65. Also joining the council: 18 Esko Public School District paraprofessionals, plus 29 branch managers of the Great River Regional Library, serving six central Minnesota counties.

New York

Two-hundred and fifty-three part-time blue collar highway workers and white collar employees in the Town of Brookhaven have joined Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000; Also joining CSEA:50 employees of the Industrial Exhibit Authority, which employs most of the workers at the New York State Fair; and 15 employees of school bus contractor First Student, working for the Odessa-Montour School District in Montour Falls. Fifty-eight employees of the Institute for Community Living, which provides housing services for the disabled, recently joined DC 1707 through majority sign-up. This brings the union’s total membership at the non-profit agency to 185.

Pennsylvania

Forty-two custodians, maintenance workers, groundskeepers, couriers and food service workers employed by the Schuylkill Valley School District in Berks County have joined Council 13.

Wisconsin

Eleven Tomahawk city public works employees have joined Council 40. Tomahawk is in Lincoln County.